Hackney Council posts newspaper-style story online, despite claims of not competing with local press

Hackney Today has been accused of competing with local papers

Hackney Council has defended posting a newspaper-style story from its taxpayer-funded freesheet on the council’s website despite claims not to be competing with local newspapers.

It follows a longstanding wrangle over the council’s £400,000-per-year paper Hackney Today, which is defying a government order to be cut back to quarterly publication.

A story was posted on Hackney Council’s website on 1 September about KAC Builders’ Merchants in Stoke Newington deciding not to sell corrosive substances used in acid attacks to under-18s.

The item is written in the style of a newspaper story and features interviews with store staff. However, the shop’s decision was taken four years ago, making the item less than newsworthy.

Hackney Council has confirmed the story was taken from Hackney Today, and declined to say whether the council plans to publish an online newspaper.

A council spokesperson said: “This content first appeared in an issue of Hackney Today and is designed to promote the council’s campaign about restricting the sale of corrosive substances.

“We have assisted a number of media outlets to produce similar stories by taking them out to observe test purchases to help further raise awareness of this important campaign.”

Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville has said Hackney Today “has always been run in a way that does not aggressively compete with other local titles”.

But Citizen editor Keith Magnum has accused the council of “using public resources to compete unfairly with local news publishers and starv[ing] independent local journalism of the revenue it needs to survive”.

The Citizen recently revealed how Hackney Today might not fit the legal definition of a newspaper, and does not appear “fortnightly” as claimed, potentially misleading the public and advertisers.

Former Hackney Deputy Mayor Sophie Linden, who is now Sadiq Khan’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, recently plugged a hate crime smartphone app run by her own department as a way to tackle acid attacks, despite citing data showing no clear link between the two issues.